Proposal description

Dashous

Localbitcoins.com started in 2012 before the massive bubble and MtGox implosion. It was a way to connect with other bitcoiners and exchange other currencies for bitcoin. A simple and reliable service. Who knows where Bitcoin would have been without it.

I am proposing to create a site called Dashous that will start out in a similar way. It will be a place to post and respond to ads with the intention to meet in person and exchange other currencies for Dash. Think the simplicity of Craigslist meets the reputation system of Ebay. It will be Open Source, completely Dash-focused, and free-to-use.

The intention is to create an MVP for this application that focuses on in-person trading / direct peer to peer transactions in a physical location of their choosing.

This is how localbitcoins was at the beginning. Where it is today is the result of 4 years of further development and legal work. The future of Dashous could follow a similar direction, but those decisions will be made after the MVP is launched.

I chose the name “Dashous” as opposed to something more like “LocalDashTraders” because I wanted this app to have an identity separate from localbitcoins. It is inspired by localbitcoins, but I believe I can set the bar much higher from a UI/UX standpoint, and I do not want to limit myself to the direction that they chose to take as a company and service.

The name itself came from a combination of the word “Dash” and “Righteous”. Righteous is a word that Amanda B Johnson says a lot, and it seemed fitting since this whole thing was her idea.

I have been in the crypto space since 2014. I became very passionate about Bitcoin and in late 2015, I made my contribution to help resist the monopoly on development and censorship that drove many of us out of Bitcoin and towards Dash.

While I am not very political or vocal, I am a good web developer. I reached out to hellobitcoinworld on reddit and partnered with him to bring XTNodes.com ( a very useful but very un-polished Bitcoin XT Specific site ) to NodeCounter.com under the alias: icodeforbitcoin.

We launched NodeCounter.com on Feb 5th 2016, which was 4 days before Bitcoin Classic officially launched. I personally think that Bitcoin Classic had much of the attention and excitement that it did because of sites like NodeCounter that empowered the masses to watch and witness the successes of the new client first-hand.

However, a few months later it was clear to me that Bitcoin was a lost cause. I started a serious search for other currencies that showed more potential, and that led me to Dash.

Meanwhile, I have been the lead developer at a very successful startup called Calendly for two years now, and I have had a long career in full-stack web development leading up to Calendly.

I am very passionate about Dash, and my daydream is that my next full-time job will be creating services for the Dash community. The success of this proposal will *not* mean quitting my day job, but I think it will be a great start. This type of service is low-hanging fruit, and there is a clear need for it.

Transparency

In return for the Dash community helping with my initial costs via this proposal, I promise transparency.

The code for the MVP will be open source.

I will track my hours and expenses publicly for the work covered in this proposal

The features covered in the MVP will always be free to use.

The payout will be split over two months, so I don't get everything up-front

The MVP

For software development, it is crucial that the app is launched as soon as possible. The longer the app remains “in development” and “coming soon”, the less likely it will be to ever launch. It is essential that the list of features is reduced to the absolute minimum, and that is the MVP ( minimum viable product ). That is what I plan to do with this proposal.

Here it is:

MVP Includes:

User Accounts

Industry standard authentication techniques

Hashed (encrypted) Passwords

Personal information limited to an email address.

User’s public profile

Avatar image

Name and Description

City of residence

Reputation

Ability to post ads to Buy or Sell

Dynamic Exchange Rate + percentage profit for seller

Suggest a location

Other free-form details

Buyers and Sellers can rate the transactions

Ability to search posts

Built-in geolocation features to make things easy

Cost filters

Reputation filters

Distance filters

Ability to respond to ads

The publisher’s email is not publically visible

The app facilitates the initial communication with an internal messaging feature

Before I breakdown the math, I want to share my logic on my hourly rate. I am a very senior web developer and if I were to do freelance work, I would charge $80 - $100/hour. However, this is a very different situation. I will still own the product that I build, and I am just asking the Dash community for some capital to get me off the ground. So I think that asking for $10 per estimated hour of effort is fair. And as with all software development, the man-hours are the vast majority of the cost.

Also, I plan to do much of the design work myself ( to keep costs down ). But I find it helpful to have a professional designer get me started with a general direction, so I have budgeted for that ( at $50/hour ).

If anything goes over-budget ( design hours, hosting costs, etc ), it will be paid out of my pocket.

My Time: 160 hours - $1,600

Feature Planning - 20 hours

Design Work - 10 hours

Research / Outreach - 10 hours

Development - 120 hours

Designer’s Time: 4 hours - $200

UI / Look &amp; Feel - 3 hours

UX Help - 1 hour

Web Services

Domain - For 1 Year - $13

Hosting - 1 Standard Heroku Dyno for 6 Months - $150

Wildcard SSL Certificate - From Godaddy - $270

New Relic - App Performance Monitoring - $0 for starter plan

Airbrake - App Error Monitoring - $0 for starter plan

Papertrail - All Logging - $0 for starter plan

Refund for this proposal - 5 Dash - $60

Grand Total: $2,293 - 191 Dash ( at $12 )

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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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HSAD0 points,8 months ago

If Trump goes for Mexican (Latin American) immigrant transfers to build his wall like he said he would, this service would be perfect for them. Instant transactions would be just the transfer system these guys need. Waiting for bitcoin transactions is a deal breaker for these guys. Voted yes.

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cryptosi2 points,10 months ago

Firstly Amanda did NOT think of this first! Let's not allow her or Pete to take credit for everything good in the world. I asked about it on slack months ago and someone told me that the idea had already been floated, then we had the WOC proposal also.

Secondly, I am probably in the minority here, but I like the name 'Dashous', think UBER or Apple, neither of them describe what the company actually does. sometimes a name should be just that, A NAME.

Finally, I'm voting YES for this one, you should think about using the Dash community proposal by [rion](https://www.dashcentral.org/p/dash-community) to help you develop some community needed features. You already have a seller here in Bedford, UK.

Best of Luck mate, and Thank you for your contribution

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

Thanks!

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Triptolemoose0 points,10 months ago

Hi, nice to see some fresh projects on the way to getting funded. Some thoughts... Why not use your localdashtraders domain for this project and save the Dashous name for a bittylicious clone? Why do you need the wildcard cert? Wouldn't https://letsencrypt.org/ suit for the MVP?

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

Hello,

I'll continue to consider other naming ideas.

On the wildcard cert, it's my experience that it's always eventually needed, and those without it have to spend much more to get it.

If I want to separate the marketing site from the app, I'll want to use app.dashous.com.

If I want a secure blog, I'll want a cert for blog.dashous.com.

Separate the backend and front end apps? Then I'll want api.dashous.com secured.

The list goes on... it's better to just start with a wildcard cert.

This letsencrypt.org site is interesting and new to me, I'll look into it further.

Thanks!

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geert0 points,10 months ago

The word "Dashous" causes my brain to think of "Dachshund."

My main concern is that, as alt-coins go, this is not a viable business model, and so is a waste of resources. There is no LocalEthercoins.com, and no LocalLitecoins.com for that reason.

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cryptosi0 points,10 months ago

I'm quite sure that with this logic, there would of been no LocalBitcoins either? "Who wants to buy bitcoins anyway? We don't need a face to face solution......" said some fella in 2011.

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ec1warc10 points,10 months ago

I am not in favor of the name Dashous, as it doesn't really tell you what it does. DashTrades, DashTraders, DashMarket, DashBids, DashAuction... pick one. Also, such a great idea... why not develop it a bit for FREE and show it at least partially done? Do you feel passion for the idea? Who is to say you don't give up on it half way through and walk away with a 96 dash in your pocket? Your domain has a 5 year history, but forwards to another website. Weak.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)1 point,10 months ago

> I am not in favor of the name Dashous, as it doesn't really tell you what it does. DashTrades, DashTraders, DashMarket, DashBids, DashAuction... pick one.

The name is really the least significant part of a web service. How does GoDaddy describe that it's a domain registrar and hosting platform?

The service makes the name. And personally, I find highly specific domain names limiting and lame.

> Also, such a great idea... why not develop it a bit for FREE and show it at least partially done? Do you feel passion for the idea?

I have already done countless hours of work on NodeCounter for free. ( I've actually lost money paying for design help ) I did that for the good of the community, and that's my motivation here too.

The idea itself is 8 days old. See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/55w4ey/what_web_application_does_the_dash_community_need/

I have spent my time from then planning and researching. If you think a good web service is built code-first, then you clearly have not built a quality web service. You have to plan plan plan, then code. To make sure you're not wasting your time building something that is not useful to anyone.

If you don't think I'm moving fast enough, or my plan of action and priorities don't make sense. Then vote "No" on the proposal.

> Who is to say you don't give up on it half way through and walk away with a 96 dash in your pocket?

I could, and I would ruin my reputation in the crypto-space, and probably have to deal with serious personal attacks and DDoS attacks on my other services. All of that is not worth 95.5 dash, at least not to me.

> Your domain has a 5 year history, but forwards to another website. Weak.

I have been threw the ringer. All i like is to buy just a little dash. Locabitcoins is the best place to do that. I love this idea it is needed like water. Localdashcoins.com is the best name. please fund this it is needed by dash.

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MrAnderson0 points,9 months ago

I agree we should capitalize on their network effect. I use LB weekey.

I would also like to see some integration with Bitsquare to make it more user friendly.

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vahapey2 points,10 months ago

You are being "au-dashous"!

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n00bkid2 points,10 months ago

YES

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Dworf3 points,10 months ago

This proposal is value for money if it becomes reality. And it fulfills some necessary requirements:
- proposal owners identity proved by linking it to his Reddit account
- The proposal owner has a proven track record and qualification for this job
- clear timeline
- clear outcome
- clear benefit for DASH
- no out of scope budgeting
Even if Dashous will not get traction it'll fill a gap.

For me a a clear 'yes' vote

Some point:
- "my daydream is that my next full-time job will be creating services for the Dash community" - hopefully you have some other dreams too ;)
- maybe the name Dashous is difficult to link to the given service. I mean the primary customer group would be the same like that for localBitcoins; why not name it localDASH?

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)2 points,10 months ago

> why not name it localDASH?

Well, firstly - I am limited to the domain names that are available. But I did purchase localdashtraders.com

Secondly, I don't want it to just be a localbitcoins clone, I want it to have it's own identity.

Many have mentioned the name being a concern, I'll consider other options for sure. :)

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tycoonheaven0 points,10 months ago

remember the ibm clones. they made the computer industry. cloning will get rid of poverty.

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HotFlow3 points,10 months ago

Hello Brett,

Admittedly this is a good proposal because it is what Dash needs so I'm sure many people will upvote it without question.

I do have some questions:

I like the name Dashous, I actually think it could catch on well.

Have you already secured the domain names for this, especially .com and .co.uk (.com for obvious reasons and .co.uk for the UK for being the #1 global financial hub)?

Which country will this service/business be working out of?

While I expect it is possible that one person could put a site like this together on their own, there are many areas that would benefit from outside expertise for things such as: meeting website security standards and financial regulations, etc.

What research have you done into ensuring the website will be compliant in both a financial and security setting or in and any other areas? What are the outcomes of your findings so far?

What is the projected timescale from project start to go live and can you provide a summary for each stage of in your planning?

How many people do you anticipate will be needed on your team to fulfil the goals of this project (a RACI matrix would be great if you can provide one)?

Due to the financial nature of the site, as well as some possible ideological objections by outside entities, the site will undoubtedly be the target of cyber attacks; either to steel user funds or to take the site offline using DDOS attacks.

What security mechanisms, including authentication, authorisation, back-end encryption, DDOS prevention, etc do you plan on implementing to protect the site and user accounts?

Dispute resolution is an important factor for any site of this nature and the site will undoubtedly attract scammers attempting to defraud people.

What plans do you have for resolving buyer/seller disputes?

For the site to grow in popularity and gain a good reputation it will need to be easy to use, trustworthy and reliable.

For users experiencing difficulties (technical or otherwise) what support mechanisms do you plan to put in place?

What levels of fault tolerance will be implemented to ensure the site suffers minimal amounts of downtime?

I look forward to seeing your answers. Again, thank you for your proposal it is definitely a service that will benefit Dash if done correctly implemented.

> Have you already secured the domain names for this, especially .com and .co.uk (.com for obvious reasons and .co.uk for the UK for being the #1 global financial hub)?

I own dashous.com and dashous.co.uk

> Which country will this service/business be working out of?

USA

> What research have you done into ensuring the website will be compliant in both a financial and security setting or in and any other areas? What are the outcomes of your findings so far?

Well the MVP should not have to comply with an financial requirements as it will not handle any money. Functionally, it will be little more than a forum. Just a place where people can connect.

The security will be industry standard: https enforced, passwords hashed, etc. And I plan to take extra effort not to track or log ip addresses.

> What is the projected timescale from project start to go live and can you provide a summary for each stage of in your planning?

It should be done by Jan 1st 2017. I have not made any official promises because it will be in my off time, and the holidays are coming up. But it will be important for my reputation that progress is made quickly.

> How many people do you anticipate will be needed on your team to fulfil the goals of this project (a RACI matrix would be great if you can provide one)?

For the MVP? Just me, and probably some design help.

> Due to the financial nature of the site, as well as some possible ideological objections by outside entities, the site will undoubtedly be the target of cyber attacks; either to steel user funds or to take the site offline using DDOS attacks.

Sure, heroku has DDoS protection built-in https://www.heroku.com/policy/security -- also there are services like cloudflare.com that make things pretty straight forward.

> What security mechanisms, including authentication, authorization, back-end encryption, DDOS prevention, etc do you plan on implementing to protect the site and user accounts?

I am a Ruby on Rails developer, and there is an industry standard ruby gem that I will be using: https://github.com/plataformatec/devise

In the future I may also allow oauth via common services like google. And with that you can use google's 2-step authentication.

And again, https enforced everywhere on the site.

> Dispute resolution is an important factor for any site of this nature and the site will undoubtedly attract scammers attempting to defraud people.

dispute resolution is specifically not in the MVP.

But I will implement a reputation system, it's not a silver bullet but it will certainly help.

I will model after sites like craigslist and try to warn and inform the user. I'll suggest they meet at places like police station parking lots, or other area that have a high probability of safety. I will also suggest that they transact in small amounts.

> What plans do you have for resolving buyer/seller disputes?

Non, at the moment.

> For the site to grow in popularity and gain a good reputation it will need to be easy to use, trustworthy and reliable. For users experiencing difficulties (technical or otherwise) what support mechanisms do you plan to put in place?

Formal customer support is not within the scope of the MVP. I don't currently have the available time to handle something like that. Maybe there will be a future proposal that could implement a call-center-like model to help with customer questions and issues.

> What levels of fault tolerance will be implemented to ensure the site suffers minimal amounts of downtime?

Once DDoS attacks are handled, the main cause of downtime would be deploying new code. I will also have new relic and papertrail monitoring the site and alerting me if memory usage is high, response times are slow, or if app servers are crashing. And I will respond accordingly.

But the feature-set of this site will be very straight-forward. I'm not too concerned about having downtime. You can assume near 100% uptime on this one.

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HotFlow0 points,10 months ago

Thanks for taking the time answering, exactly what I expect from a proposer looking for my vote.

A few things:

First, I really like the idea of the service not having logs otherwise it defeats, for me at least, the whole privacy ethos of Dash - but it might not be totally possible unless you implemented some sort of zero-knowledge on account messages. Incidentally, I think a zero-knowledge on accounts would be a fantastic feature you could sell to your users.

As I stated before, these types of sites are huge targets to hackers as we all know, especially if you plan on having wallets stored on the site, like LocalBitcoins does. I would be worried if a site like this didn't provide some two-factor authentication.

As an aside to wallets, the buyer could be given an option to provide their own receiving addresses, either on their profile or when agreeing with a seller. That way no private keys ever need to be stored on the site.

Tell me what you think, I'm ready to vote!

Overall though it's a great proposal - good luck on this - i'm sure it will get funding.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

Thanks HotFlow.

It's important to understand that the MVP is in-person ONLY. No online trading, no web wallets, etc. That introduces a lot of complexity for development, legal, security, etc. I will *consider* adding those things later.

But think of this like craigslist. You post an ad, someone responds, you meet with them in person.

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daf2 points,10 months ago

So there won't be any built-in escrow system, à la Localbitcoins? I think it's an important point in Localbitcoins.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

maybe later, but it's not planned in the MVP.

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daf1 point,10 months ago

Although your proposal is not that expensive, I don't think a project without an escrow system has much value. Voting no.
I'll vote yes as soon as an escrow will be clearly planned.

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Dworf1 point,10 months ago

just to remember - LBTs also started without escrow service

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

Completely within your rights. :)

I however, don't plan to dive into the "deep end" and start with online trading as an included feature. It would be a full-time job to keep from getting sued or thrown in jail. So online trading / money management / etc is a hard "no" for me, at least for this proposal and the MVP of the product.

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daf0 points,10 months ago

Your arguments make sense.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

I have added a few sentences to the opening section of the description. I hope this clarifies the direction, and the reasons for it.

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ANAEDV1 point,10 months ago

It is impossible to run a trading platform without some form of escrow. The only way currently is to have an impartial third party hold onto the product being sold. In this case sellers must put their BTC into their wallets on LBC in order to sell them. Without a built in wallet this cannot be achieved. I think that if we are going to offer a service like this a decentralised method using the second tier masternode network to facilitate trades should be looked into rather than a centralised model.

How could you limit fraud without escrow to begin with? I have traded Bitcoin on LBC and Bitbargain for almost 3 years now and have a website in development for offering Bitcoin and Dash trades. My business model is essentially founded on trust from feedback from previous trades as any negative feedback from stealing from a customer would be a bigger loss from profit than a gain would be from theft. Obviously there is the morality aspect but not everyone has the same virtues so without a form of escrow fraud would be rampant.

Also ID verification would be required and a facility which meets privacy policy laws would need to be met. This is important as without ID verifications MITM attacks occur a great deal more often.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

You do understand that the trading would be entirely offline right? It will be in-person trading, you send me the DASH, I hand you cash. That's all.

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ANAEDV0 points,10 months ago

I didn't realise that was the case no, as most of LBC trading is done online.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

I've updated the wording to make it more clear. ( I hope )

Was:
MVP *does not* include:

Now:
MVP *does not* include: ( this proposal does not include: )

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geert-2 points,10 months ago

Right now, you can simply go to localbitcoins.com, buy bitcoins, and then use shapeshift.io to convert the BTC to Dash. Because of the limited appeal of Dash at this time, I don't see a compelling business reason to create a site like Dashous. If you wanted to create a localbitcoins.com clone, and add Dash as a secondary option, that might make sense.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)2 points,10 months ago

> If you wanted to create a localbitcoins.com clone, and add Dash as a secondary option, that might make sense.

How would I do that? Localbitcoins is not open source.

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Stealth9231 point,10 months ago

To start - can you please verify your identity from a trusted source, such as your domain etc to prove this proposal is really from you.

Sure! I've added "I'm currently hosting a proposal on the Dash network, check it out!" to brettclanton.com.

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TaoOfSatoshi0 points,10 months ago

Voting yes, as I want to see what you can do. A localbitcoins for Dash is so important to ween ourselves off of the need to purchase BTC first. I however also have reservations about the name, and I strongly recommend it be changed. I have the domain www.cashintodash.com if you would like to discuss it.

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

That's a great domain. Yeah, I'd be happy to discuss other names. It seems many are not sold on dashous.

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TaoOfSatoshi0 points,10 months ago

Join us on Dash Nation Slack to have a better forum to gauge opinions and ideas: http://dash-nation-invite.herokuapp.com/

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tungfa0 points,10 months ago

there he is: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dashous-like-localbitcoins-for-dash.11047/

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halso-1 point,10 months ago

Hey, proposal sounds great, and at a reasonable price. The name Dashous is a bit of a tongue twister. What were the other names you considered?

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brettclanton001 (proposal owner)0 points,10 months ago

It's not much of a tongue twister, just like dash-us. I also have localdashtraders.com. And I'm open to other suggestions.